Agile Methodology
Overview
As per, https://www.redhat.com/en/devops/what-is-agile-methodology
Agile is an approach to software development that seeks the continuous delivery of working software created in rapid iterations.
However, the phrase "agile methodology" is misleading because it implies that agile is a singular approach to software development. Agile is not a set of prescriptions for exactly which actions to take in software development. Instead, it is a way of thinking about collaboration and workflows and it is a set of values which guide our choices in regards to what we make and how we make it.
In practical terms, agile software development methodologies are all about delivering small pieces of working software quickly to improve customer satisfaction. These methodologies use adaptive approaches and teamwork to focus on continuous improvement. Usually, agile software development consists of small, self-organizing teams of software developers and business representatives regularly meeting in-person throughout the software development life cycle. Agile favors a lightweight approach to software documentation and embraces—rather than resists—changes at any stage of the life cycle.
Agile values
Agile as we know it today traces its history to 2001. Reacting to waterfall approaches to project management, which organizes a software project as a series of linear sequences, a group of software developers penned The Manifesto for Agile Software Development. In this document the programmers proposed a new approach to software development and described 4 key characteristics that they believed should be valued over other concerns. As they put it, agile software development teams should value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
The authors clarify that all items on the above list do have some inherent value. However, they propose that valuing the items on the left (bolded) above those on the right can lead to better outcomes in product development. The agile manifesto does not set out to prescribe a set of practices; it is guidance for a new way of thinking about software development.
There have been many practical outcomes of the agile manifesto. For instance, instead of developing software sequentially from one phase to the next, which is how the waterfall method ensures product quality, an agile method can promote development and testing as concurrent and continuous processes. Put another way, waterfall development holds that an entire phase should be completed before moving on to the next, whereas agile supports multiple sequences happening at the same time.
Create an agile infrastructure—and enable an adaptive organization
Where did agile come from?
Agile approaches to work were created to address the perceived limitations of the waterfall methodology, which was derived from the manufacturing method of Henry Ford’s 1913 assembly line and later applied to software development. Since its founding in 2001, agile development has flourished in the software industry and project management, though it has many variations.
Agile started when many software developers began noticing that the production cycles and collaboration methods of waterfall were not producing the desired results. This problem had become pervasive by the early 1990s, when it became common for a several years lag to persist between an organization's validated business need and the delivery of a working application. Business demands and markets could change enough during those years that large parts of software projects would be cancelled before they were ever delivered. This waste of time and resources led many software developers to seek an alternative.
Faced with the threat of disruption, organizations increasingly adopt digital transformation strategies to keep up with the accelerating pace of business. And when they do, agile software development frequently plays a role.
Agile forms the basis of many of today’s digital workflows. Cloud computing, with its flexible, scalable, IT infrastructure, has grown up in parallel with the demands of agile software development. Cloud-native development embraces an agile-like notion of software as a series of interconnected services that scale to meet business needs.
DevOps as a concept breaks down the old wall between software development and operations. SRE is an implementation of DevOps that uses software as a tool to manage systems and automate operations tasks. CI/CD methods accept that software will change continuously, and gives developers tools to accelerate the speed at which they can deploy new code.
By now you may have noticed that the concept of "agile methodology" is itself an agile idea, responding to the needs of its customers (that is, software developers) through changing times. Keep this in mind as we take a brief look at a variety of agile frameworks, which carry different names and often vary from one implementation to another.
Agile frameworks
Agile frameworks for software development—like Scrum, kanban, or extreme programming (XP)— form the basis for popular software development processes like DevOps and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD).
Scrum is perhaps the most popular agile framework in use today but not all agile is Scrum and, honestly, not all Scrum is agile. Scrum is a framework for managing work designed for small, cross-functional teams of 5 to 9 people who break their work into actions that can be completed within a consistent period of time called a sprint. Scrum teams consist of team members, a Scrum master, and a product owner. Typically, Scrum is implemented when a large project can be broken up into 2- to 4-week sprints. Scrum focuses on feedback loops through a ceremony called the "retrospective." The unofficial motto of Scrum could be "inspect and adapt."
Other agile frameworks, notably kanban, predate the agile manifesto. But these frameworks are considered to be agile because they promote the values outlined in the agile manifesto. There are too many agile frameworks and approaches to scaling agile to list all of them here.
Agile Tools Selection
https://www.ibm.com/internet-of-things/learn/agile-development-tools-guide/
The benefits of agile development are well-known:
Better teamwork with greater productivity
Working software created more quickly and efficiently
Consistent delivery
Higher quality solutions
Improved customer satisfaction
Yet each team’s journey toward achieving these desired results will vary. Some people will adopt Scrum and other simple approaches using open source tools, others will automate and implement a disciplined agile approach, and still others will require more extensive agile lifecycle management solutions. Agile practices need to be adjusted to meet the goals, needs and unique environment of each team.
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management software has helped thousands of companies worldwide improve their agility with software best practices, tools and services—including training and coaching—tailored to support their evolving agile practices. IBM understands that a single-size solution does not fit all.
This guide is designed to help you choose the agile tools that will help support your needs today while positioning your team for success as your agile implementation grows.
One of the best ways to begin selecting agile tools that fit your team’s journey is by asking a few key questions.
Does our team have the necessary automation to conduct rapid agile iterations?
We’ve learned that teams first consider tools after they have completed a few agile pilot projects; have undergone self-evaluation; and understand that they need to improve core practices such as agile planning, collaboration and continuous integration.
Can we enable collaboration and transparency across all stages of the lifecycle?
Teams then consider tools as a way to reduce risk and address complexity as they continue to grow their skills and maturity across the agile lifecycle. Many expand their practice to accommodate test-driven development, continuous change and evolving requirements, and greater stakeholder involvement.
Do complexities exist that require making modifications to traditional agile practices?
The good news is that the right tools can help you succeed, regardless of your entry point. Your challenge is to identify your greatest need today, the improvements you need to make to current practices and whether new tools are really the solution. Your team also needs to establish criteria to evaluate its success and be able to gather and analyze timely, objective data to help drive continual process improvements.
You can evaluate your agile tooling needs by using the following seven key criteria.
Core agile capabilities
First and foremost, agile tooling must support people over process by giving the agile team, product owners and other project stakeholders the integrated capabilities they need to collaborate and work as productively as possible. Individual tools addressing specific agile capabilities can be effective but can decrease team productivity because people must learn and access different tools. A comprehensive solution that provides core agile development management capabilities as well as dynamic planning linked to execution can offer much greater benefit—at much lower cost—than a solution pieced together.
Integrated and open agile delivery
Your agile tooling should allow you to protect your investments in existing tooling, minimize required maintenance of integrations and bypass brittle point-product integrations. A single delivery platform built on open, industry standards can help make all of this possible. An open platform can simplify the job of integrating existing open source and commercial tools as well as help lower maintenance overhead and training costs. It offers you the ability to assemble your own ideal software delivery infrastructure based on preferred tools and vendors and, at the same time, optimizes your long-term flexibility.
Team collaboration in context
Your agile tooling should make collaboration easier across all stages of the lifecycle. All team members, including stakeholders, should have web-based access to real-time, role-relevant information as well as the ability to easily make contributions to projects. When agile team members can work together in the context of their work, the focus can more easily remain on the delivery of working software.
Lifecycle traceability
Your agile tooling should allow individual team members to quickly understand how their actions can affect the project as a whole as well as the tasks of other team members. With many tools, tracking work items across the agile delivery lifecycle can be a hit-and-miss endeavor if asset data is not linked using open, public specifications. The tools you use should provide integrated planning with built-in, customizable traceability reporting.
Agile development analytics
The ability for managers and agile team members to make informed decisions is key to reducing friction and accelerating the velocity of agile teams. Be sure to look for solutions that centralize work items in a single database so that your team has a single, reliable source of truth. Also look for tools that deliver new insights through customizable, drill-down dashboards and reports; cross-project trend analysis capabilities; and work histories of work items and artifacts.
Adaptability and flexibility
Regardless of the size or maturity of your agile team, your agile tooling should give you the ability to deploy, customize, enact and improve agile processes. When selecting your tools, don’t overlook whether they support formal, agile and hybrid approaches and whether they are packaged with an enterprise-ready web server and database. Also consider whether the vendor is offering to help speed your time to value and lower your costs with a free version and a trial cloud environment.
Agility at scale
Be sure the vendor and tools you are evaluating can support the needs of disciplined agile delivery and delivery at scale. As your organization grows, it most likely will need a well-defined agile scaling process, team structure and tooling environment to address real-world complexities, such as those faced by teams distributed across organizations or geographies or teams addressing compliance requirements. Your team could need support in many other areas as well.
Use this detailed checklist to guide your agile development tool selection process.
Agile evaluation guide checklist
Core agile capabilities:
First and foremost, the agile tool must support people over process by facilitating collaboration and productivity among the agile team, product owners and other stakeholders.
Features comprehensive agile planning and tracking (by product, release and iteration)
Provides dynamic plans linked to execution, with plans automatically updated to reflect current status as teams complete tasks
Includes out-of-the-box agile process templates that can be easily adapted
Allows product owners and stakeholders to collaborate in managing and prioritizing product backlogs
Provides customizable dashboards and reports (to track burn down, burn up and velocity and give you flexibility in reporting your metrics)
Offers flexible change management capabilities (to track defects, tasks, impediments, builds and retrospectives) with the ability to create custom tasks
Supports the ability to define, create and manage themes using epics and user stories
Integrated and open agile delivery:
The agile tool must allow you to protect investments in existing tooling, minimize the amount of maintenance of integrations and bypass the need for brittle point-product integrations.
Natively integrates with the team’s development environment (including Eclipse an d Microsoft Visual Studio environments)
Includes source code management and continuous build integration capabilities
Allows multilevel builds supporting personal, feature, team and integration work
Provides open services to integrate with complementary agile tooling
Includes integrations with popular sourcecode management (SCM) and Build tools likeGit, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins and supportsfederated SCM environments
Supports multiplatform development (Java, C, C++, Visual Basic .NET [VB.NET] and COBOL
Team collaboration in context:
The ability to understand how your actions affect others, find gaps in test coverage and block defects helps your team more easily course correct, identify and mitigate potential risks, and reduce friction across the agile delivery lifecycle.
Traces all work item types (including epics, user stories, tasks, defects, impediments, retrospectives and builds)
Includes multiple traceability options (such as parent-child, depends-on, blocks, resolves, related and affects)
Provides customizable traceability plan view with the ability to automate flagging of risks and issues (for blocking defects and test coverage)
Allows all team members to create traceability reports and dashboard widgets
Lifecycle traceability:
The ability to understand how your actions affect others, find gaps in test coverage and block defects helps your team more easily course correct, identify and mitigate potential risks, and reduce friction across the agile delivery lifecycle.
Traces all work item types (including epics, user stories, tasks, defects, impediments, retrospectives and builds)
Includes multiple traceability options (such as parent-child, depends-on, blocks, resolves, related and affects)
Provides customizable traceability plan view with the ability to automate flagging of risks and issues (for blocking defects and test coverage)
Allows all team members to create traceability reports and dashboard widgets
Agile development analytics:
The ability for managers and agile team members to make informed decisions is key to reducing friction and accelerating the velocity of agile teams.
Provides one source of record for agile teams in a centralized repository
Offers dashboards that can be customized for individuals, for teams or by role
Provides drill-down capabilities on dashboards and reports
Tracks history of work items and artifacts for audit purposes
Adaptability and flexibility:
Your tool should support your team regardless of its process or size. It is also important to select a vendor that provides a comprehensive deployment environment and offers a simple way to try the tooling.
Provides process tools with the ability to deploy, customize, enact and improve agile processes
Supports agile, formal and hybrid approaches
Includes an enterprise-ready web server and database
Provides a free version for up to 10 team members and a trial cloud environment
Agility at scale:
As your organization grows and your needs evolve, be sure the vendor you are evaluating can support the more-advanced needs of disciplined agile delivery and delivery at scale.
Access and security: A security-rich platform supporting single sign-on; smart card authentication; and flexible, role-based permissions
High availability: Ability to deploy tooling on a high-availability platform
Defined scalable process: Provides a well-defined agile scaling process
Deployment: Bridges gaps with enterprise deployment planning and automation and help desk integrations
Quality and testing: Capabilities to empower independent test teams, including automated functional, security and performance testing
Development of complex applications: Allows teams to grow beyond basic development tooling
Systems development: Support for development of embedded systems
Agile modeling: Capabilities for sketching, prototyping and designing that integrate into the agile tooling framework
Code quality: Allows teams to add static and security code analysis into the continuous integration process
Business collaboration: Allows business stakeholders to work with their choice of collaboration tools
Enterprise agile planning (EAP) tools
Enterprise agile planning (EAP) tools
As per, https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/enterprise-agile-planning-tools
Gartner defines enterprise agile planning (EAP) tools as products that enable organizations to scale their agile practices to support a holistic enterprise view. EAP tools are an evolution of project-/team-centric tools to support a business-outcome-driven approach to managing agile product delivery at scale. This evolution is highlighted by the fact that several of these tools also offer project portfolio management (PPM) and strategic portfolio management (SPM) capabilities. EAP tools in this market combine data from multiple sources to enable: - Monthly, weekly and even daily incremental value delivery based on business outcomes - Support for enterprise agile frameworks like Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) - Product roadmapping - Management of strategy, investments and objectives - Increased visibility into the flow of work - Management of work backlogs - Collaboration capabilities for individuals and teams - Management of cross-team dependencies - Release planning and forecasting - Visibility into the financial aspects of the work being done
Best Agile Tools
As per, https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/agile/top-agile-tools
In recent times, agile tools and techniques have grown in popularity, and for a good reason. Teams can be more adaptable, collaborative, and effective at work by breaking projects into simpler, more actionable steps and working in brief sprints. Yet in order to make sure that everyone is on the same page and that the project is progressing smoothly, managing an agile project requires the appropriate tools. In this article, we'll look at what agile tools and techniques are, why teams need them, and which ones are essential for agile management in 2023.
An agile tool is a software application or platform that enables teams to manage and track their Agile projects more efficiently. Agile methodologies are increasingly becoming popular in project management due to their flexibility and ability to adapt to changing project requirements. Agile tools provide a digital workspace where teams can collaborate, plan, and execute their projects using Agile principles. There are many popular agile tools available such as JIRA for agile management. Many companies offer JIRA training to help teams maximize their potential.
Agile tools also offer reporting and analytics features, which enable teams to track progress, identify areas of improvement, and make data-driven decisions. These features may include velocity charts and other visualizations that provide insights into project status, team performance, and overall progress. Agile certification validates a professional's proficiency with Agile processes and can aid in career advancement.
The agile methodology relies fundamentally on being adaptable to change and flexible. Managing an agile project may be challenging and time-consuming without the proper tools.
Teams can collaborate, monitor progress, and maintain organization more easily with the use of agile tools. They also offer project visibility, letting team members see what each other is working on and how the project is developing. Here are some elaborated reasons why teams need Agile tools:
Efficient Project Management: Agile tools provide a centralized platform for managing all aspects of the project, from planning to execution. This helps teams to stay organized, track progress, and meet project deadlines efficiently.
Better Collaboration: Agile tools enable team members to collaborate in real time, share information and ideas, and track progress more effectively. This helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.
Transparency and Visibility: Agile tools provide real-time updates and visibility into project status, enabling team members and stakeholders to see progress and identify potential roadblocks early on. This helps to promote transparency and accountability across the team.
Continuous Improvement: Agile tools facilitate the continuous improvement of processes and practices by providing insights into team performance, project progress, and potential areas for improvement. This helps teams to identify and address issues quickly and optimize their processes for better outcomes.
By providing a centralized platform for managing all aspects of the project, enabling better collaboration, promoting transparency and facilitating continuous improvement, Agile tools help teams to work more efficiently and effectively and achieve better project outcomes.
There are a few important factors to take into account when selecting an agile solution for your team. Start by looking for a tool that is simple to use and navigate. You shouldn't utilize a tool that requires extensive training or that is challenging to use because these factors can increase annoyance and reduce productivity. Also, seek a tool with capabilities that are tailored to the requirements of your company. If your team, for instance, places a high value on visual assistance, seek a product that includes a Gantt chart or Kanban board function. Next, think about how much the tool will cost and whether your team can afford it.
There is a wide range of Agile tools available for teams that adopt the Agile methodology to software development. The Agile tools list is extensive, and the choice of tools depends on the specific needs of the team and the project. The most popular Agile tools list includes project management tools like Jira, Trello, and Asana, which provide a central location for tracking tasks and progress.
Now that we've covered what agile tools are and why teams need them, let's take a closer look at some of the must-have agile tools list for agile management in 2023.
Agile Manager is one of the best agile tools designed specifically for agile teams. It offers features such as sprint planning, task management, and team collaboration. Agile Manager is a cloud-based Agile project management solution that is designed to help teams plan, track, and manage Agile projects.
Its key features include backlog management, release management, sprint planning, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Agile Manager starts at $60/month.
JIRA is one of the most popular Agile tools for project management. It is widely used for issue tracking and resolution.
It offers features such as agile boards, project tracking, reporting, and team collaboration.
JIRA offers a variety of pricing plans starting at $10/month for small teams and going up to $14,400/year for large enterprises.
Monday is one of the best agile tools supporting cloud-based project management with Agile methodologies.
It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Monday starts at $8/user/month.
Trello is a visual project management tool that is based on the Kanban methodology.
It allows teams to create boards, lists, and cards to organize their tasks and projects.
Trello offers a free plan as well as paid plans starting at $9.99/user/month.
Version One is an enterprise's best agile project management tool that offers features such as project planning, reporting, and team collaboration. It also supports popular Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.
The pricing for Version One is available upon request.
Planbox is a cloud-based best agile project management tool offering features such as backlog management, sprint planning, and team collaboration.
Its pricing starts at $20/user/month.
LeanKit is a visual project management tool that supports agile methodology tools and techniques such as Kanban and Scrum.
It offers features such as backlog management, reporting, and team collaboration.
The pricing for LeanKit starts at $19/user/month.
Icescrum is an open-source Agile project management tool that offers features such as backlog management, sprint planning, and team collaboration.
It is available for free download.
To effectively implement Scaled Agile, teams need access to a variety of SAFe® tools and ProofHub can help you with the same. It is the platform for all these project-related needs, including tools for management such as task manager, team accountability tracker, custom workflows and more.
It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for ProofHub starts at $45/month.
ClickUp is a cloud-based project management tool that supports Agile methodologies. It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for ClickUp starts at $5/user/month
Kanbanize is a visual project management tool based on the Kanban methodology. It offers features such as backlog management, reporting, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Kanbanize starts at $9/user/month.
Active Collab is a cloud-based project management tool that supports Agile methodologies. It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Active Collab starts at $7/user/month.
Online agile tools have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially with the rise of remote work. Teams can use online agile tools to manage their work, collaborate, and communicate effectively, regardless of location. Codegiant is a cloud-based project management tool that supports Agile methodologies.
It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Codegiant starts at $4/user/month.
Pivotal Tracker is an Agile project management tool that supports popular Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.
It offers features such as backlog management, reporting, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Pivotal Tracker starts at $12.50/month.
Agile tools for Scrum are essential for teams practicing the Scrum methodology. These tools help teams to organize and manage their work, track progress, and communicate effectively. Scrumwise is an Agile project management tool that is designed specifically for Scrum teams.
It offers features such as backlog management, sprint planning, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Scrumwise starts at $9/user/month.
By using agile tools for Scrum, teams can improve their productivity and efficiency, delivering high-quality software products within the timeframe and budget.
Axosoft is an Agile project management tool that supports popular Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.
It offers features such as backlog management, sprint planning, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Axosoft starts at $20/user/month.
Assembla is a cloud-based project management tool that supports Agile methodologies. It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Assembla starts at $10/user/month.
With online agile tools, teams can stay connected and productive, even when working remotely. Asana is a popular project management tool that supports Agile methodologies.
It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Asana starts at $10.99/user/month.
Tools for agile teams are critical for implementing Agile methodologies in software development projects. These tools for agile teams enable groups to manage their work, communicate effectively, and collaborate efficiently. By utilizing tools for agile teams, organizations can streamline their workflows and deliver high-quality software products within the timeframe and budget.
Wrike is a cloud-based project management tool that supports Agile methodologies. It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Wrike starts at $9.80/user/month.
Nifty is a cloud-based project management tool that supports Agile methodologies. It offers features such as task management, project tracking, and team collaboration.
The pricing for Nifty starts at $39/month for up to 10 users.
Choosing the right and popular Agile tools for your business is crucial to ensure the success of your project management. With so many Agile management tools available, it is important to evaluate each tool based on your specific needs and requirements.
Consider the size of your team, the complexity of your projects, and your budget before selecting a tool.
Additionally, evaluate the features and functionalities of each tool, such as backlog management, sprint planning, team collaboration, and reporting.
Look for a tool that aligns with your preferred Agile methodology, whether it be Scrum, Kanban, or another framework.
Ultimately, the right Agile tool for your business will help you streamline your project management processes and enhance collaboration among team members, resulting in better productivity and project outcomes.
The key takeaways from this overview of Agile management tools include the wide variety of options available, the importance of considering specific team and project requirements when choosing a tool, and the need to evaluate features and functionalities such as backlog management, sprint planning, and team collaboration. Obtaining a KnowledgeHut’s Agile certification can equip professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively utilize Agile tools, streamline project management processes, enhance collaboration, and ultimately improve productivity and project outcomes.
Tools used in Agile methodologies are essential for ensuring effective collaboration, communication, and project management. Popular tools used in Agile include Jira, Trello, Asana, and Slack, which enable teams to manage their tasks, track progress, and communicate effectively. Other tools used in agile include testing tools like Selenium and Cucumber, code review tools like Gerrit and Crucible, and DevOps tools like Jenkins and GitLab. By leveraging the right tools used in Agile, teams can increase their productivity, improve their efficiency, and deliver high-quality software products within the timeframe and budget.
As per, https://ligsuniversity.com/blog/a-guide-to-agile-project-management-methodology-tools
In project management, the agile approach is a product development process that takes an iterative loop. The agile project management framework draws its unique flavor from its lack of a rigid structure.
Rather than following a linear path as other project management methodologies might, the approach encourages being responsive and adapting to changes that may occur at any point in the project life cycle or within a development cycle.
The agile and waterfall (or traditional) approaches to project management differ primarily in their structure. This primary difference is noted by the Association for Project Management (APM), which notes that while the waterfall approach will “treat scope as the driver and calculate the consequential time and cost,” agile “commits set resources over limited periods to deliver products that are developed over successive cycles.”
There are primarily four values that make the agile approach to project management different from traditional approaches:
People are the most important stakeholders in the agile rulebook, not the processes and tools used in completing a project.
Agile is client-centric. It prioritizes the achievement of results as opposed to rigidly sticking to contracts.
Agile is an extremely responsive approach, favoring flexibility over rigid structures in general.
Agile places a premium on problem-solving over record-keeping.
For it to ensure that people are the most important stakeholders and clients are taken along, the agile project management approach subscribes to five primary components:
User stories: In line with its customer-centric approach, agile uses a short outline written from a client’s perspective to estimate how much work needs to be done and what the final product should look like.
Sprints: These are periodic short iterations (usually lasting one to three weeks) to improve and upgrade a product or service. Stand-up meetings: Also called “daily Scrum meetings,” are short meetings where team members tell each other what part of the project they are currently working on. The meeting usually lasts under 10 minutes and is done while standing to preserve its brevity.
Agile board: Can be a physical board or a project management software function used to keep track of team progress.
Backlogs: Are outstanding tasks in the system. In the sprint planning process, any backlog stories will be moved into the sprint where responsible software developers or other team members work on them. In software development, this is often referred to as the product backlog.
When the software professionals, who met in 2001 in Utah, created the Agile Manifesto, they introduced the 12 principles and agile values that still underpin today’s philosophy:
Customer satisfaction through delivery of value, done consistently, and at the right time.
Embracing change, no matter when it comes during the development process, and harnessing this change for the customer’s benefit.
Delivering projects frequently, while ensuring that the shortest time possible is spent completing a project.
Daily collaboration among all relevant stakeholders is a necessity, including customer collaboration.
An enabling environment built on trust and support is necessary to keep individuals motivated to build projects.
Have face-to-face conversations whenever possible, as this is the most effective means of communication.
Success is measured by having a final working product or working software.
Agile processes spur sustainable development. All team members must maintain a consistent pace indefinitely.
Consistently focusing on sound design and technical excellence enhances agility.
Simplicity – doing the most with the least amount of effort – is imperative.
Requirements are met, and the best architectures and designs are birthed through self-organizing teams.
Frequent introspection on how to become more efficient, with behavioral adjustments to boot, are necessary for teams.
We discovered that there are over 50 agile methodologies. This implies that even though we can talk about an “agile methodology,” the reality is that the concept means different things to different people.
By the term methodology, we refer to the system or strategy used by a development team or project team that follows the agile approach. Here are some of the most popular agile methods:
Scrum
Scrum is an agile framework that uses sprints and daily meetings (also known as Scrum ceremonies) at intervals to address distinct portions or a set amount of work within a project during its life cycle. There are three leading roles in Scrum: the Scrum master (the leader), the product owner (who could be the client), and the scrum team members (the individuals developing the product).
Kanban
The Kanban method is based on the visual display of current tasks, future tasks, and completed tasks on a kanban board. The visual display’s main advantage is that it assists agile team members not only in seeing where their tasks are, but also other tasks related to their project.
Lean
As the name implies, the lean development method aims to keep a project trimmed by discouraging waste. This helps to keep the system clutter-free while improving the flow of value. Other popular agile methodologies with agile practices are eXtreme Programming, Crystal, Scrumban, and the Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM). There are even some advocates of agnostic agile, a framework that prioritizes what’s best for the software development project, rather than a specific agile methodology.
Even though diverse teams may implement the agile approach differently, some necessary steps should be included:
Planning Projects and Creating Product Maps
All stakeholders need to understand the goals and values of a project by the time the project begins. Elements that need to be understood include the scope of the project and its various components. This is achieved by creating a roadmap that will contain all the deliverables needed to create the final product.
Another idea that needs to be clear at the planning phase is the estimated timeline for releases. During each sprint, stakeholders convene at a sprint planning meeting to discuss the task ahead, how team goals will be achieved, and what needs to change.
Daily Stand-ups
The daily stand-up meetings are for team members to discuss the previous day’s achievements and the plans for the present day. If there are any delays anticipated, the team deals with such issues in these meetings.
Sprint Reviews
Usually, the team holds two meetings at the end of each sprint. The first meeting involves all the individuals in the project so that the finished product can be presented. A second meeting (sometimes known as a sprint retrospective) seeks to evaluate the sprint by looking at each sprint’s strengths, weaknesses, and remedies.
Benefits Of Agile PM
The APM notes that the agile approach’s main advantage is that it “concentrates on empowered people and their interactions and early and constant delivery of value into an enterprise”. The same association lists other benefits:
Builds engagement between clients and end users and supports organizational culture change
Reduces waste, allowing for a lighter weight framework
Greater flexibility, thus enhancing project control
Quicker turnaround and rapid detection of issues
Enhances accountability and diversity of ideas
If the idea of agile project management appeals to you, you may want to try some of the best agile tools we could find on the market. To develop this list, we took some time to look at what each tool promises about agile project management and what reviews from users are saying:
The developers of the Jira Software say that their product was developed to help project managers “plan, track, and release great software.” It provides real-time visual data that can be used to generate reports. It can also integrate with other workspace tools, such as “Confluence, Bitbucket, and hundreds of other developer tools.”
SprintGround highlights three tracking capabilities and three management tools as its main features. Issue and bug tracking, time tracking, and development progress tracking are SprintGround’s headline tracking features. The management department offers task management, collaborative real-time communication, and a feature that helps organize ideas and feedback.
VersionOne is a project management tool used for both tracking and maintaining records. It is designed to follow the phases of the agile process, allowing users to have an idea of the backlogs. It also allows them to evaluate the sprints and create reports.
The Trello interface is simple, allowing users to view all the information about a project at a glance using Trello cards. Trello also has an automated system called Butler, which helps to “remove tedious tasks from your to-do lists.”
Monday.com calls itself “the project management software for productive teams.” For teams following the agile approach, it offers templates like a project tracker, a project roadmap, cross-departmental project tracking, and resource management.
Asana provides users with a list view for organizing and assigning tasks, a timeline for managing schedules, and boards that the developers of the software tool say “make it easy for your team to focus on tasks currently at hand.”
According to the developers of the Zephyr Project Manager, it helps teams “set deadlines, set and share details, and create projects all in one place.” Team members can also collaborate by leaving comments and attachments, or checking where the different phases of a project are at any given time.
One of the reasons why nTask is on this list is that it has excellent features but still comes free. The tool allows for visualization of project plans using Gantt charts. It shows how the projects are related to each other, budgets, and milestones.
ProofHub promises teams that it will allow them to “easily plan, collaborate, organize and deliver projects of all sizes, on time, using one project planning software with all the right tools put in one place.”
LeanKit is a project management tool from Planview. It promises to help teams “apply lean management principles to their work, helping them work smarter and deliver faster”.
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